Next week, we will celebrate a decade since the Brexit vote. The decade that followed was one of political turmoil: five prime ministers in just twice as many years, and maybe a sixth to join them in just a few weeks. David Cameron hoped that a referendum might stop his party obsessing over Europe. Instead, the stalemate in parliament and acrimony that followed Brexit saw his party dealt a semi-fatal blow at the ballot box.
To mark this anniversary, on Wednesday The Spectator asked those who played a key role in the events leading up to the vote: was Brexit a mistake? Batting for Remain were barrister and former Conservative MP Dominic Grieve KC and Spectator columnist Matthew Parris, while former Brexit Party MEP Baroness Claire Fox and The Spectator editor Michael Gove defended Leave. The Spectator’s assistant editor Isabel Hardman refereed.
Dominic Grieve spoke first and provided the only passionate defence of the European Union. ‘The opportunities [the single market] gave us to increase our national security, prosperity and wellbeing were immense.’ Post Britain’s departure, he claimed that ‘the superior growth rate which we enjoyed in 2016 is gone’, replaced by ‘a 4 per cent reduction in growth, a 15 per cent reduction in trade, our GDP is down 5 per cent and our goods exports are down 18 per cent in real terms’.
